Flashback video: When Ajinkya Rahane won hearts with emotional gesture towards Afghanistan players

Former Indian Test captain Ajinkya Rahane, on this day back in 2018 (June 15), made a great gesture that proved how good the cricketing ties were between India and Afghanistan.

The Afghans made their entry into Test cricket for the very first time by playing a Test match in Bengaluru against India. While they lost the Test comprehensively, the then-stand-in Indian captain showed that welcoming Afghanistan into Test cricket was perhaps more important than the result of the game.

After the hosts were presented with the trophy, Ajinkya Rahane called all the Afghanistan players to pose together with the Indian players. Cricket was indeed the ultimate winner. Here's the video:

---

Ricky Ponting on Ajinkya Rahane's Test future

While Ajinkya Rahane went through a tough time after being dropped from the team, he made a sensational comeback in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia.

The veteran right-hander was India's best batter in the final with scores of 89 and 46 in the two innings. Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting hailed Rahane for the way he performed on his comeback and felt the veteran can still keep going in international cricket.

Speaking to ICC earlier, Ponting stated:

"He has made the most of his opportunity and that is all you can do. I think there are two more Test matches in the West Indies after this before Rahul and Iyer are back, so he has got a real opportunity to prolong his Test career for another couple of years. I am really happy to see him back out there and playing and when you see him play like that (against Australia) you just wonder why he hasn't been in this India team for the last couple of years."

India are slated to play two Tests against the West Indies in July and it will be interesting to see if Ajinkya Rahane continues to feature in the XI or whether they look at blooding in youngsters.